O'Brien, 50, admitted conning €18m out of 10 friends, family and business associates in an apparently unsophisticated pyramid scheme over 15 years. But there are many others who continue to be affected by the fallout of his fraudulent scheme.

Paddy Kavanagh is testament to that. A former banking manager, he runs a finance brokerage in Naas, Co Kildare, called The Finance Business. He barely knew Breifne O'Brien, and didn't invest a cent in his ventures, but the aftershock of his sideways encounter with the suave Trinity graduate continues to reverberate.

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